ALBANY, N.Y. - Jerry Rosenberg, a convicted cop killer who became a tireless jailhouse lawyer and a negotiator during the bloody Attica prison riot, died Monday. He was 72.

He died of natural causes, said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

Rosenberg was New York's longest serving inmate, spending 46 years in state prisons for a botched 1962 stickup at Brooklyn's Boro Park Tobacco Co. that left two police detectives dead. He had always maintained his innocence.

Rosenberg was hours away from the electric chair in 1964 when he received the stay that led to a long and eventful prison term.

He was shot in the knee and beaten during the 1971 inmate takeover of the Attica prison. Rosenberg acted as one of the negotiators for the prisoners before the insurrection ended with an all-out assault by police. Eleven prison employees and 32 inmates died.

In 1967, Rosenberg became the first inmate in the state to earn a law degree behind bars. By his own count, he was involved with more than 200 lawsuits, earning praise from at least one judge. Famed left-wing defense attorney William Kunstler, who knew him from Attica, called Rosenberg "a very shrewd guy." Tony Danza played him in the television movie "Doing Life."